Aspect Ratio Documentation (2 Viewers)

[Cine_Capsulas]

I happened on a rerun of WILL & GRACE the other day, and the image was stretched to fill the 16:9 screen. How can people actually watch shows this way? I couldn't change the channel fast enough.

My parents don't even notice.

When I change the aspect ratio to the proper 4x3, they say people look too tall.

 

[ahollis]

I happened on a rerun of WILL & GRACE the other day, and the image was stretched to fill the 16:9 screen. How can people actually watch shows this way? I couldn't change the channel fast enough.

I'm with you.

 

[Charles Smith]

Totally. I can't watch a geometrically distorted picture for one minute. No way, no how.

I know people who do it all the time, and believe me, I would probably damage real friendships if I spoke my mind honestly to some of them. It's sad, but how anyone can do that is wholly incomprehensible to me.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I'm forever "fixing" relative's sets to combat the stretching when I visit them. The sets are always stretching again by the next time I visit. Seems like some people love the stretch.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

A noted and well-respected archivist has people over to his home occasionally to run some rarities. The 1.37 image is always stretched to fill the widescreen set. I offered to fix it but he didn't want me to change any settings.

I'm not kidding!

 

[Moe Dickstein]

Was it stretched or re-formatted?Many of the shows of the 2000s and later were filmed with the coming 1.78 in mind, however some of course are shown stretched 4x3.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I don't mind when they re-do shows to fit the 1.78 for syndication (Seinfeld) but otherwise of course we'd want to see the side bars.

 

[EddieLarkin]

Sometimes shows were filmed in 16x9, but were never intended to be seen that way. During Buffy's original run on TV in the U.K., the BBC started using the full width of the image Season 4 onwards, but no effort whatsoever had been made to protect the far sides. Season 4 especially is rife with mics, stage hands and props visible. Joss Whedon made sure the show was presented 4x3 for its entire run of DVD releases in the U.S., but unfortunately did not do the same for the DVDs in the U.K.

http://i.imgur.com/40YmyGB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/V9oWq11.png

I don't have a cap of it, but in one particular episode a character is menaced by a monster that enters the frame from the side. In the 16x9 version you literally see the the stage hand handling the puppet come into frame to attack the actors with it. If that ever makes it to Blu-ray I pray to God it's 4x3.

There's an article about it with more caps here:

http://www.quadruplez.com/2010/06/essay-why-buffy-may-never-be-blu/

 

[Moe Dickstein]

yes, of course only shows that were protected...

 

[GregK]

The television adoption of widescreen was sort of the reverse trend of how it was handled in the 1950s, and certainly has a good number of obvious variables.

At the start of widescreen television, the typical method on ABC was to center cut (crop) for its standard definition feed. And widescreen televisions at the start of ABC HD broadcasting were of course, only a select few. Therefore the creators of ABC content would typically compose everything for 4x3 and "the 16x9 sidebars", as they were called at the time, were simply "filler". I worked in Operations at a Hub facility during this timeframe where we monitored 4x3 SD air content along with 16x9 HD content simultaneously on monitors right next to each other, which made for great comparisons. The wilted set piece plant often made its appearance in the extra 16x9 area, or a portion of a head, nose, or what have you .. as those shooting were focused on their primary 4x3 viewing audience. There were also some surprises, like a few Peter Jennings specials where two separate masters were created. A good example of this was when (roughly) 4x3 archival photos were used, the 4x3 SD version would show more picture info, while the HD version was cropped for 16x9, but not a simple center crop. Only 16x9 HD footage used in the specials were actually "cropped" in the SD version. The same went for text and graphics. A few of the popular shows (LOST as one example) also had special 4x3 and 16x9 edited versions, at least when it came to the opening and closing on-screen text in the first season. As widescreen sets became more popular, so did the 16x9 framing. Now the landscape is totally reversed, where there is no longer an SD ABC feed. And 4x3 compositions are, for the most part.. very secondary and sometimes totally discarded.

Having also monitored NBC content during the transition to widescreen, I was also impressed how NBC handled their SD content. With the exception of some dramas and news content, NBC would typically letterbox their SD downconverted content. This hypothetically allowed content creators to compose in widescreen without fear of their work being hacked for 4x3, or at a minimum, protected for the primary runs when shown on NBC. The network was also was the first to push for AFD (Active Format Description) in their HD feed metadata, which for the more advanced SD set top boxes, could tailor the downconverted image per the wishes of the content creators. For example, news or sports could be set to center cut in 4x3, so the 4x3 displayed a larger "full" image on the 4x3 screen, while other titles were coded to letterbox to preserve the widescreen compositions. AFD as used by NBC did not affect widescreen viewers in any way. Actual implementation of AFD in home gear had a slow start, but it showed the network cared about how everyone viewed their content, no matter what the AR was. NBC also eventually ditched their SD only signal, and with widescreen displays now being cheap and prevalent, the need of AFD is nearing its end.

Again, I tend to consider widescreen television a different discussion of sorts, compared to great research and interesting ongoing discussions Bob, Jack, and the rest of the HTF have been discussing here in this thread, but thought this was worth a quick mention at this time.

 

[Vic Pardo]

When watching "Pioneers of Television Westerns" on PBS two years ago--in SD, I was stunned at how every clip from a TV western was unforgivably cropped to fit some new AR standard imposed on the program's makers. I didn't see the other entries in that series, but I'm sure all the classic TV clips were treated this way.

 

[RolandL]

Right now Ivanhoe is on TCM, Its 1.33:1 on the SD channel, cropped to 1.77 on HD.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Happy 2014 from Julie Adams and the 3-D Film Archive.

Watch for DRAGONFLY SQUADRON, THE BUBBLE* and 3-D RARITIES fully restored from master 35mm elements on 3-D Blu-ray in 2014!

*Please note: THE BUBBLE is not to be confused with UNDER THE DOME.

 

[EddieLarkin]

and 3-D RARITIES fully restored from master 35mm elements on 3-D Blu-ray in 2014!

Now this sounds exciting! I don't suppose you might tease us with what will be featured on the disc?

Also, can you confirm which distributor/label The Bubble and the Rarities disc/set will be coming from?

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Thanks, Eddie.

RARITIES will include many of the shorts mentioned on the home page of our website. http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/

At this stage, I'm not at liberty to make the "official" announcement. The individual distributors will do that once they have a release date locked in.

Rest assured, most of the Archive's material will be on Blu-ray by the end of 2014. It's taken a VERY long time to make this happen!

 

[EddieLarkin]

I can't wait, and will make sure to get everything day one. Some of those shorts sound great! I hope there will be more stuff in the years to come, and wish you all the best.

 

[Doug Bull]

Great news Bob. What a wonderful achievement.
Thank you so much.

Will they be available at Amazon?


Doug.

 

[ahollis]

Bob you just made 2014 for me as the Cinerama films have done for the past two years. I'll get everything you have released.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Thank you Nick, Doug and Allen, you're very kind.

Yes, they will be available on Amazon.

 

[Adam_S]

What's the aspect ratio for riot in cell block 11 and il sorpasso?